Geography

Lying on the Atlantic in the southern part of
West Africa, Liberia is bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte
d'Ivoire. It is comparable in size to Tennessee. Most of the country is a
plateau covered by dense tropical forests, which thrive under an annual
rainfall of about 160 in. a year.

Government

Republic.

History

Africa's first republic, Liberia was founded in
1822 as a result of the efforts of the American Colonization Society to
settle freed American slaves in West Africa. The society contended that
the emigration of blacks to Africa was an answer to the problem of
slavery and the incompatibility of the races.
Over the course of forty years, about 12,000 slaves were voluntarily
relocated. Originally called Monrovia, the colony became the Free and
Independent Republic of Liberia in 1847.

The English-speaking Americo-Liberians,
descendants of former American slaves, make up only 5% of the population,
but have historically dominated the intellectual and ruling class.
Liberia's indigenous population is composed of 16 different ethnic
groups.

The government of Africa's first republic was
modeled after that of the United States, and Joseph Jenkins Roberts of
Virginia was elected the first president. Ironically, Liberia's
constitution denied indigenous Liberians equal to the
lighter-skinned American immigrants and their descendants.

After 1920, considerable progress was made
toward opening up the interior of the country, a process that facilitated by the 1951
establishment of a 43-mile (69-km) railroad to the Bomi Hills from
Monrovia. In July 1971, while serving his sixth term as president, William
V. S. Tubman died following surgery and was succeeded by his longtime
associate, Vice President William R. Tolbert, Jr.